Strategy for developing data standards in support of automation of Systematic Reviews

The current report is the result of the recent EFSA-EBTC initiative to advance the use of automation tools in systematic reviews. The working group members identified the need for data exchange standards to facilitate transferring data between SR automation tools without loss or changes in data as a first priority. Closely related objectives identified were the concurrent development of data guidance and data content standards, and a strategy for governance of the resulting data standards, including their maintenance and regular updates. These conversations led up to the organization of workshops to initiate the development of data standards, as described in the current report. The EFSA-EBTC collaboration organized a four half-day workshop for an extensive group of stakeholders actively involved in the development or use of SR automation tools. The main objectives were 1) to generate a common understanding of the needs and hurdles for data standards in SR automation, 2) to collate viewpoints from all relevant stakeholders on how such standards may be developed, and 3) to kick-off the development process. Three preparatory workshops preceding the final workshop were organized to clarify the scope and objectives of the main workshop. This external scientific report contains the summary of the preparatory and main workshops, as well as the proposed strategy for the process of how these data standards could be developed. The recommended next steps for development focus on further refining the aims, analysis of the landscape, interoperability with existing standards, setting up the infrastructure (e.g., establishing a governance structure and working groups containing all essential stakeholders), and the process of actual data standard development, launching and monitoring adoption of the standards.